Nothing about HSBC, the job cuts and possibly leaving?
Discussion
Timmy40 said:
It wasn't that. There were people on £25k securing £1m worth of BTL mortgages, up and down the land all people talked about was how much money they were making from houses, it was a national obsession. Of course that was fine because the people pocketing £500k in capital gains for doing precisely feck all were hard working people totally unlike immoral bankers getting huge bonuses.
I remember when telling one idiot that he might want to be a little more careful in terms of his property activities that "house prices couldn't fall because the Government wouldn't let them" such was the magical power of the Great Gordon Iron Chancellor of New Labour.
You had Astons and new Mercs appearing on streets of terraced houses, people decided to start buying in Romania, Spain, everyone was rich! It was an economic miracle....except of course it had to end.
And when it all went tits up whose fault was it? Not the politicians they just made the rules, not the public they just borrowed the money ( willingly as adults ), no it was all down to investment bankers ( who have/had feck all to do with retail ).
While I agree with much of what you say the involvement of the Labour Government was also a significant factor. The Government was quite happy for the property boom to occur as it created a boost in tax revenues they could waste. The labour Government with the backing of Mervyn the swerve even managed to remove the last link to house price inflation from the remit of the Monetary Committee when they moved the inflation measure from RPI to CPI in 2002.I remember when telling one idiot that he might want to be a little more careful in terms of his property activities that "house prices couldn't fall because the Government wouldn't let them" such was the magical power of the Great Gordon Iron Chancellor of New Labour.
You had Astons and new Mercs appearing on streets of terraced houses, people decided to start buying in Romania, Spain, everyone was rich! It was an economic miracle....except of course it had to end.
And when it all went tits up whose fault was it? Not the politicians they just made the rules, not the public they just borrowed the money ( willingly as adults ), no it was all down to investment bankers ( who have/had feck all to do with retail ).
If interest rates had been higher from 2002 to 2007 there would not have been a banking crisis in the UK.
Mrr T said:
While I agree with much of what you say the involvement of the Labour Government was also a significant factor. The Government was quite happy for the property boom to occur as it created a boost in tax revenues they could waste. The labour Government with the backing of Mervyn the swerve even managed to remove the last link to house price inflation from the remit of the Monetary Committee when they moved the inflation measure from RPI to CPI in 2002.
Brown has his clumsy mitts all over the Scottish Bank Boom, even taking away the powers from the BoE and giving them to the toothless FSA.Carney's take on things...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33087604
He will also admit that the Bank of England under his predecessor Lord King failed in the run up to the financial crisis because of its arcane and ambiguous rules and its inability to identify risks in the banking system. It failed to effectively control markets where abuse was rife.
"Though markets can be powerful drivers of prosperity, markets can go wrong," Mr Carney said.
"Left unattended, they are prone to instability, excess and abuse.
"Personal accountability was lacking, with a culture of impunity developing.
"All these factors contributed to an ethical drift. Unethical behaviour went unchecked, proliferated and eventually became the norm."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33087604
He will also admit that the Bank of England under his predecessor Lord King failed in the run up to the financial crisis because of its arcane and ambiguous rules and its inability to identify risks in the banking system. It failed to effectively control markets where abuse was rife.
"Though markets can be powerful drivers of prosperity, markets can go wrong," Mr Carney said.
"Left unattended, they are prone to instability, excess and abuse.
"Personal accountability was lacking, with a culture of impunity developing.
"All these factors contributed to an ethical drift. Unethical behaviour went unchecked, proliferated and eventually became the norm."
Zippee said:
It's worth remembering here that the vast majority of the people who will lose their jobs will be in admin, support workers, back office staff, retail staff - f' all to do with the very small (but well publicised) minority of investment bankers that the media rightly or wrongly lambasts at every opportunity!
Do those people, who likely live in normal houses, drive normal cars and live a normal life really deserve to be made redundant?
The stereotype banker is such a small minority in the city (remember HSBC are going to cull nationally) but so many people apply the term to anyone who works in the industry.
Why don't they deserve to be made redundant? Do those people, who likely live in normal houses, drive normal cars and live a normal life really deserve to be made redundant?
The stereotype banker is such a small minority in the city (remember HSBC are going to cull nationally) but so many people apply the term to anyone who works in the industry.
It was 'little people' in your local high street branch that mis-sold you PPI when you didn't need it. The back room staff processed and filed the unneccessary paperwork. Yes those little, backroom, people were all part of it.
The ethics and morals of the banking industry are and were shocking from the very top, right down to the high street branch, this is why many people don't have much sympathy for cuts in the banking industry.
eccles said:
Why don't they deserve to be made redundant?
It was 'little people' in your local high street branch that mis-sold you PPI when you didn't need it. The back room staff processed and filed the unneccessary paperwork. Yes those little, backroom, people were all part of it.
The ethics and morals of the banking industry are and were shocking from the very top, right down to the high street branch, this is why many people don't have much sympathy for cuts in the banking industry.
YawnIt was 'little people' in your local high street branch that mis-sold you PPI when you didn't need it. The back room staff processed and filed the unneccessary paperwork. Yes those little, backroom, people were all part of it.
The ethics and morals of the banking industry are and were shocking from the very top, right down to the high street branch, this is why many people don't have much sympathy for cuts in the banking industry.
TTwiggy said:
That may well be the case, but I've yet to hear anyone in the banking industry blame the government...
Ok well as an ex-banker I'll say that the banks were without doubt the architects of their own misfortune but the housing bubble, sub prime debacle and subsequent financial melt down were IMO the Governments making. The US housing bubble was a deliberate policy of the Greenspan Fed to allow the US to recover from the Tech crash without any pain. The sub prime mania was a deliberate policy of social engineering by successive US governments. And the systemic financial collapse that resulted from individual banks poor risk taking was a result of non existent macro prudential regulation by any government. (The last point is dull but important. An individual Bank can not be responsible for the net positions of all the other banks which they can not possibly know, only the regulator has this information. ie there's nothing wrong with an investment bank making a huge bet on something but there's a lot wrong with everyone making the same bet) The most interesting is the middle point and if you've got 5 minutes I'd recommend reading this WSJ article...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122298982558700341
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